In my experience, a vital part of creating a fictional narrative is being willing to screw up when writing, followed by figuring out how to fix your mistakes, as well as understanding that very few stories are truly perfect, and, finally, knowing when to trash what you’ve written and begin anew. If I’m not careful, perfectionism and fear of failure can hold me back from creating fiction.
Today’s trio of words of wisdom is about being brave in your writing (and rewriting) and being willing to embrace mistakes, fixing what you can, and learning from what you can’t fix.
First Clare Langely-Hawthrone talks about her revision process. Then Boyd Morrison explains why it is important to not avoid making mistakes at all costs when writing. Finally, Joe Hartlaub shares another author’s courage in being willing to discard a novel that didn’t work.
I view revising as adding the second and third coats of paint to a project – each layer adds a subtly and a depth to the characters, to the setting, and to the themes that swirl around the plot. What I find the biggest challenge is avoiding what I call ‘tinkering’ – changing my mind over a minute plot point only to find it has rolling ramifications and then (in total disgust) I find I have to go all the way back and return it all to the way it was. I guess this is what people call a ‘learning process’ but I seem to be a bit ‘learning challenged’ when it comes to this – and still find myself adding complexity where NO MORE is needed! ‘Keep It Simple Stupid’ is a motto I need to have branded to my forehead.
Those who want to see the writing process in action can find me sitting in my writing studio, a converted garage in the back of our house, bleary eyed at one o’clock in the morning, determined to finish the next chapter as I’m ‘on a roll’. I might be on the internet checking on a historical reference, looking up the architecture for a historic home or searching The Times database for an event the latest fashions for that year. I might even be using the delete key to liberal advantage as part of the revision process involves getting rid of all the extraneous stuff that I find stops the flow of the narrative (sometimes bringing tears to my eyes if it was a point of historical research I spent hours on!)
Yesterday I deleted a whole chapter – painful but necessary. I then merged two minor characters to streamline the plot. I decided one scene moved like molasses and I got bogged down in worrying whether the house should have gothic archways or not…Time passed. It was one am…Time to call it quits till the red pen, the axe and the delete key were brought back out to do it all again.
Ah the joys of revision. You just got to be brave…
Clare Langley-Hawthorne—September 15, 2008
In writing, trying to eliminate mistakes is the mistake. Yes, there are objective errors that you want to avoid in a novel. Don’t put a safety on a Glock pistol. Don’t make your continuity and timelines inconsistent. Don’t change the name of a character halfway through. These are indisputable mistakes, and yet I have seen them all in novels. Bestselling novels.
In one of my own books, THE ARK, I explained that the elevators of a slowing airplane lowered to maintain altitude. Of course, this is incorrect. The elevators should go up to pitch the aircraft up. I’ve flown planes myself. I have a degree in mechanical engineering during which I studied fluid dynamics. I know that it was wrong, and I still made the mistake. No one—including my brother, who is a former Air Force pilot—caught the error until the book was in stores. No one died, and only one reader has ever brought it up (in fact, it’s the only reason I know the mistake happened). However, the error still bugs me.
What’s more insidious for a writer is the avoidance of subjective mistakes. We want to get everything right in a story: characters, plot, twists, literary merit, creativity, emotional resonance. We want the story to be perfect, and impatient people like me want it to be perfect from the moment we start typing it.
But it never is. It can’t be. Ever. I bet you’d only be able to come up with a tiny list of stories that didn’t have a single thing you’d change. And even then, go look at the Amazon reviews for those books. You’ll find at least a few people (and sometimes hundreds of them) who don’t agree with your definition of perfection.
Voltaire is considered the originator of the phrase, “Perfect is the enemy of good.” We’re afraid that if our story isn’t perfect, it won’t be good enough. The idea for a novel that we have in our minds never comes out on the page like we imagine. Sometimes we can’t write at all because we’ll be disappointed that it won’t come out perfectly formed on the first try.
What we have to come to terms with is that making mistakes is part of the process. That’s how we learn. That’s how we make art. My wife, who is sometimes frustrated when I delay delivering pages to her to edit, gave me a T-shirt for Christmas that says, “Even if it’s crap, just get it on the page.” That notion can be freeing if you take it to heart. You can’t make it better if it doesn’t exist in the first place.
I’m getting more comfortable with making mistakes, but it’s a daily struggle. The lesson slowly worming its way into my head is that to fixate on creating the perfect novel results in creating nothing. So I’m learning to focus on the right thing: getting a story out that reflects my voice, where even the flaws and imperfections are unique to me.
Boyd Morrison—April 22, 2013
You may know of John Clarkson. He is an extremely talented author whose novels, particularly those in his current James Beck series, stand as an example of what the job of writing looks like when it is perfectly and professionally done. John intermittently blogs and recently told a story about his current work-in-progress. I will summarize it but you really need to read John’s brief dissertation to get the full flavor of what happened. John describes the process of writing what would have been the third novel in the Beck series, and realizing, upon completion, that it didn’t work (and why). He concluded that it could not be fixed so he trashed it and started over. His account is illuminating, tragic, hopeful, and ultimately inspiring. Oh, and it is very brave, too. John, in workmanlike, understated prose gives us the reasons why what would have been his latest novel didn’t come together. Ouch. How many of us would willingly and intentionally exhibit what we perceived to be a screwup on the internet town square in a forthright manner and without reservation? I know of at least one person who would pause before doing so. He’s typing these words right now.
The truth is that John is not alone in what he went through, though he is certainly walking point when describing the experience. Not every written volume of every successful series makes it to the finish line. They lay on the blacktop and the finish line rises up to meet them. Sometimes being successful is as much knowing what doesn’t work as what does work, and being brave enough to pull the pin, rather than hoping that no one will notice. There is a term used for these books which don’t make pass the author’s own white glove test. Such manuscripts are called “trunk novels.” I am reasonably sure that every successful author has at least one. I daresay that we will probably not walk with Jack Reacher down every mile of middle America that he traverses, or that we see the account of every mystery that Spenser or Bryant and May encounter and/or solve. What is different here is that John takes us through the process of determining whether the book goes to the agent or the trunk. It’s not a pretty sight, but it’s an informative one.
Joe Hartlaub—July 13, 2019
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- Do you revise bravely? How do you kill your darlings?
- How do you deal with perfectionism? Do you embrace your mistakes?
- Have you ever had to trash an entire novel and start over? How did you handle that?
***
Brand-new librarian Meg Booker is just supposed to be checking out books.
Instead, it’s the patrons who are being checked out–permanently.
A Shush Before Dying releases in ebook on April 29, 2023, with print to follow.
Preorder from these retailers.
❖ Do you revise bravely?
❦ More or less. But as with the rest of my writing, the bravery (or bravado) is supplied by my “Unconscious,” so I’m guessing.
❖ How do you kill your darlings?
❦ I read them over & over until they seem silly.
❖ How do you deal with perfectionism?
❦ By being prefect, of coarse! I try to make every sentence perfect. If I get stuck, I insert “zxc” and press on, irregardless.
❖ Do you embrace your mistakes?
❦ Temporarily.
❖ Have you ever had to trash an entire novel and start over?
❦ I’m working on one, now. A postapocalyptical work that is far too gritty for the YA genre. I’m reading it to my workshop and may decide to toss it or aim it at the 25+ reader or cut down the explicit and implied sex and violence.
❖ How did you handle that?
❦ I’ll decide later, but, as José Jiménez said, “I plan to cry a lot.”
Re mixed genres: Everybody loved “Dead Poets Society,” but it didn’t work for me. Why? Because plunking a student’s suicide into what had been a wonderful story of writing bravely outweighed any point that story had made. Clarkson’s child-in-danger plot element weakened the serial killer element, making 40% of his text meaningless.
Re theme: Theme is a statement or question about the human condition, looked at from all angles. Some people write before selecting a theme. (These people probably don’t outline, either.) I’ve told the story before of a film where the director and writer discovered in post-production that the theme of their film, as-shot, differed from their original vision. (They fixed it mostly by altering the sound track.)
Re fearlessness: I learned long ago, at least two weeks, that any plot problem can always be solved. Still, it’s best not to paint yourself into a corner by (1) letting your B-plot eclipse your A-plot, or (2) selecting the wrong theme, or none at all. Think ahead.
Thanks for weighing in, JG. Great comments. Excellent point that, given, time, any plot problem can be solved, and that thinking ahead can help head off potential ones.
Do you revise bravely? How do you kill your darlings?
On a scene by scene basis, AS I write them, in linear order. I kill anything that fights with the sense of presence I aim for. If the characters doesn’t have a very strong reason for a thought, the thought is dumped (or motivated MUCH better).
Darlings that stop the flow are sacrificed. Immediately. It’s not ‘get it on the page and we’ll revise later’ for me; I micromanage as I go, aim for the best language as I go, don’t leave things for later – I won’t remember. I already have tons of notes – I am not going to get around to reading them all, and they’ve had a chance during the writing process to be the best version of the story; if they don’t make it then, it isn’t going to get better later.
How do you deal with perfectionism? Do you embrace your mistakes?
The perfect is the enemy of the good enough; that said, I still want it to be very good. I correct mistakes and plot holes, if any, as I find them. Occasionally I’ll have to backtrack and add a line or two to an earlier scene; in general, though, no whole-book revisions of any kind.
Have you ever had to trash an entire novel and start over? How did you handle that?
If I ever to back to the trunk novel, I have the feeling it will have to be completely redone – I’d like to keep the general plot, the main characters, and some sections of natural dialogue; everything else will not be going forward with us.
I haven’t done it yet – it’s on the back burner until the main trilogy is finished. Or longer.
No promises – I may be more interested in something else later.
Thanks so much for commenting, Alicia. You make some great points.
I agree that the perfect is the enemy of the good (and ultimately, unattainable, for me, at least), but that aiming to be very good is important.
As someone who has five trunk novels, returning to any of them would, for me, necessitate outlining and then blank-drafting a new version. They served the purpose for me, which was to practice writing at novel length. And I’m definitely interested in other stories now.
Trunk novels need to be mined for what it was that your initial enthusiasm led you to – whether you rewrite them eventually or not.
A character, a storyline, a relationship – something made you write THAT story.
They are learning tools but also repositories of writing dreams.
When I remember the ENORMOUS amount of time and effort that went into getting from the beginning to the edited end…
Totally off topic but I see you’re a fellow Smith who uses a pen name. It’s an almost auto-decision for us. I write under a variety of pen names and still haven’t settled on one.
Greetings, Philip. I always say that we Smiths belong to a very big family 🙂 I actually write fantasy and science fiction under my full name, Dale Ivan Smith. I decided to write mystery using my first two names.
I do have a completely invented pen name chosen if I ever decide to write something else.
Good luck with your pen names!
Excellent and timely words of wisdom, Dale.
I used to cling to my precious words b/c they’d taken so long to polish to perfection.
Finally I realized, hey, I can always write MORE words.
Words are not a finite quantity like cinderblocks. If you run out in the middle of a building, you have to go to the store to buy more. Not so with words. Just write more.
There are 44 pages in the outtakes file from my new book Deep Fake Double Down. That doesn’t count paragraphs when I hit delete and didn’t bother to save them. Some are entire subplots that took the story in the wrong direction so I had to chuck ’em.
Nine novels in my trunk. Each was a learning experience in my apprenticeship. Will they ever see the light of day? Maybe. But I’ll start from scratch rather than try to remodel the existing story.
You can always write more words to replace the darlings you had to kill.
Thank you, Debbie! That’s a crucial point about being able to always write more words. I was in a similar boat, and have learned this lesson. In fact, with my new cozy mystery, only a few scenes the original draft survived. The final version is much longer, too, because the story, especially the investigation plot, needed the words.
Fortunately, I have a limitless supply, just like you noted 🙂
Great subject for discussion today. Dale. Thanks for pulling these posts from the archives.
I’m not sure that I revise bravely. I use an extended outline, and use that to do much of the revision before I write my first draft. I kill my darlings with great reluctance, sometimes waiting to see what beta readers have to say. Thumbs up or down.
I struggle with perfectionism, often trying to correct my mistakes in the second pass read through before I resume the rough draft. But I do embrace mistakes. When I learned that I had to do everything wrong the first three times, before I got it right, it helped me worry less about failure. It allowed me to just jump in and try, knowing that by repeating (unsuccessfully) a couple times, I would finally see how it was supposed to be done.
I have a couple novels in the proverbial trunk. Starting a new series helped me let go of them. I do plan to go back and look at them sometime, to see if there is anything salvageable.
Congratulations on A Shush Before Dying. Good luck with your book launch!
Thanks, Steve! Great comments.
You make a terrific point about revising your story in outline, before beginning drafting. That seems like it would let you see the forest of your novel before you enter the wood and begin dealing with individual trees.
Thanks, too, for your congratulations on A Shush Before Dying. It’s been a journey and the end is at hand.
Thanks, Dale, for including me in your bi-weekly collection of advice. I should note that for those of you who enjoy John Clarkson’s work there is a new Beck book forthcoming titled TRIBES which should be appearing shortly.
Thanks, Joe, and thanks for the update about John Clarkson’s new Beck book!
Do you revise bravely? How do you kill your darlings?
How do you deal with perfectionism? Do you embrace your mistakes?
Have you ever had to trash an entire novel and start over? How did you handle that?
I “revise bravely” by letting the ms sit awhile. Those darlings don’t look so darling in a fresh light.
I do struggle with perfectionism, so I keep telling myself, “This is where I am now. The next book will be better.”
I’ve trashed five or six novels. No biggie. If the “next book” is better, it’s not hard to trash an inadequate ms.
Hi, Vera, it’s wonderful to see you here today! Thank you so much for your comments.
I like your points that letting the manuscript sit for a while can help view those darlings differently, and that “the next book will be better.”
Here’s to writing bravely.
Perfectionism is a tough subject. I can be brutal on my work. My own worst critic for sure. The closest I came to trashing a whole novel was when I cut 50+K words from what became CLEAVED. Not an easy thing to do. I also have five trunk novels from when I was honing my craft. My family has strict instructions never to release trunk novels after my death. 😉
Hope you have a nice weekend, Dale! Congrats on Shush!
Thanks, Sue!
Cutting that many words would challenging for many of us for sure. Good point about covering one’s authorial backside after shuffling off this mortal coil and making sure trunk novels aren’t released. Mine must never see the light of day 🙂
Hope you have a great weekend, too!
Great subject, Dale. (I have a post on revision coming up on Monday!)
Do you revise bravely? How do you kill your darlings? I don’t know how brave I am, but I don’t mind deleting things that aren’t working. And if I miss that opportunity, my husband will usually point out what needs to go.
How do you deal with perfectionism? Do you embrace your mistakes? I do tend to be perfectionistic. I can spend quite a bit of time searching for the perfect word or phrase, and that means I take longer to write a novel than most, but I’m fine with it. I made a lulu of a mistake in my WIP that was fortunately caught by a fellow pilot. (I wrote “runway three-six-zero” rather than “runway three-six.” There are no three digit runways, and I have taken off on runway three-six more times than I can count!)
Have you ever had to trash an entire novel and start over? How did you handle that? I’ve never trashed an entire novel, but then I’m pretty new at this. I’ve stored many a chapter in the Scrivener trash; however, they’re still there to be resurrected if I find a place for them
Have a wonderful rest-of-the-weekend!
Thanks, Kay! Great comments. I look forward to your revision post!
Hope you are having a fine weekend.